Current TV: Currently a Waste of Time
- From: "jose" <josefsoplar@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 8 Aug 2005 16:21:16 -0700
Maybe Al ought to go back to planting tobbaco. Oops! I forgot, Al
is a big city boy.
Current TV: Currently a Waste of Time
by Christopher Flickinger
Posted Aug 8, 2005
Al Gore's new television network, Current TV, hit the airwaves August
1, and it should be off the air by September 1. It claims to be the
first national network created by, for and with an 18 - 34 year-old
audience, and proudly boasts, "Current is about what's going on."
But, from what I can tell, after watching the youth oriented channel
for an hour and a half, what's "going on" isn't much!
The network airs short video essays (called "pods") created by
staff members and viewers who submit content via the web. The whole
idea is to have young adults tell the stories of their generation. With
audio and video equipment so inexpensive nowadays, the audience gets to
take an active role in the broadcast by producing their own pieces and
uploading them to the network's website. What you get, in the end, is
an audio/visual teacher's nightmare: shaky pictures, weird camera
angles and short stories without a point.
Here's a little taste of what I had to endure for 90 minutes: a
bizarre documentary about a couple and their emotional pregnancy; a
story about people in Japan who want to commit suicide with others they
meet over the Internet; a video titled "The Perfect Egg" that
describes the unusual characteristics people desire in women who donate
their eggs to ovum centers; a cultural piece featuring a man in Paris
who jumps over fences, on trees, and off staircases, artwork and
buildings; a segment on the history of skateboarding; and, a
video-essay from a third-world country, which focuses on the tradition
of cremation and literally answers the question, "how long does it
take for the average human body to burn".
Yes, all this and much more.
I've never seen a more mind-numbing television network than this one.
Viewers could find more educational content on the back of a milk
carton than they could by subjecting themselves to Current TV.
Forget about hearing the latest headlines on this television network.
Instead, every 30 minutes a segment called "Google Current" gives
viewers a list of the most popular Google searches on various topics.
As to what you're supposed to do with this information, I'm not
sure.
In between "pods," Current TV offered its audience little factoids.
The ones I saw informed me of which lobbying group spent the most money
in Washington, D.C., last year, which type of car was stolen the most
often and on which day of the week most e-mails were sent.
It was at this point I literally had to ask myself, "Why am I
watching this?" What's even worse is that I'm a member of this
network's target audience!
As for the on-air talent, I felt embarrassed for them. One host
(Shauntay Hinton) brought way too much personality to the table.
Although Hinton, former Miss USA (2002), was raised in Mississippi, her
on-camera demeanor, "street lingo" and attitude were straight out
of Compton. Meanwhile, when host Johnny Bell took center stage, he
threw around the following words and phrases with ease: "I'm
stoked," "that's sick," "sweet" and "chill out."
Granted, Bell was trying to use words he thought related to his
audience, but this English major and surfer from northern California
went overboard.
My 22-year-old brother watched alongside me as this debacle unfolded.
As he put it, "It's like watching the TV Guide Channel: short
clips, useless information and a channel you only want to watch as a
last resort."
Luckily, Current TV is only available to some 20 million viewers across
the country. That means - according to the numbers from Nielsen Media
- this sorry station reaches less than 20% of all the households in
America.
As for its political affiliation, there's not enough substantial
content on the network to classify it as liberal or conservative. What
I can tell you is that Al Gore is Current TV's chairman, David
Neuman, who has ties to CNN, is the president of programming. Some of
the hosts have been affiliated with PBS and ABC. And one host (Kinga
Philipps) even appeared on the show "The West Wing." While none of
these facts automatically places the network into the liberal column,
the potential to stray Left-ward certainly exists.
A good test for conservative film-makers and student journalists would
be to submit their work to Current TV and see what happens. However, it
should be noted that within the network's "terms of use" it
indicates that materials which are "unlawful, obscene, fraudulent,
indecent or that defames, abuses, harasses, or threatens others, or is
hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable..." are
forbidden. So, I guess from a liberal point of view, stories and videos
promoting "conservatism" would most likely be rejected.
Truth be told, the channel had a few bright spots. There was an
inspirational story about a quadriplegic surfer and his determination
to remain active. And, a motivational speaker named Deepak Chopra
offered viewers advice on life and how to handle awkward situations.
But, other than those five or six minutes, it was difficult to stay
interested in the segments - I mean "pods."
Although it's a novel concept - combining the Internet, television,
cheap video equipment and a youthful, energetic audience - Al Gore
has a lot of work left if he's going to make this interactive
television venture successful. Personally, I think he's got too much
on his plate. My advice to Al would be, "Cut your losses. Sell the
network, and focus on perfecting one thing at time, like your first
invention - the Internet."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © 2004 HUMAN EVENTS. All Rights Reserved.
.
- Prev by Date: Re: Castro Bashes John Bolton as 'Gangster'
- Next by Date: Power to the Lawyers
- Previous by thread: Castro Bashes John Bolton as 'Gangster'
- Next by thread: Power to the Lawyers
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
